A Winter's Tale, chapter 3
by slipper-rose
Summary: Now you may all know who Liara is! Is she Mel's daughter or what? Read and find out...


Disclaimer: I do not own the characters of Sherwood Smith, whose beautifully constructed world of Remalna I cannot hope to simulate as successfully as I should wish.  
  
Okay, here's a query for anyone who want to answer: how do I add on chapters to this story, as opposed to continually posting chapters as separate stories? If you haven't guessed already, I'm a little technologically challenged.  
  
Chapter Three: Dinner at the Residence  
  
I was late. I had tried not to be, but one time change before the bells rang for first blue I had found a history of the Pirate Wars, which proved to be entirely engrossing, and it was only with difficulty that I was able to tear myself away.  
  
"Where have you been?" Mama demanded. "No, don't tell me; I know perfectly well." She brandished her fan. "If we are late tonight."  
  
"Coming, Mama!" I dashed behind my screen and tore at the laces of my dress. Lina whisked around the screen to help me, carrying my dinner dress. I jumped out of my shoes while pulling the pink, gold-patterned skirt over my petticoat. Lina laced the bodice.  
  
Mama rapped on the screen. "Claudi Aris, I am giving you to the count of three to come out! One-"  
  
Lina knotted the sash around my waist. I stepped into my slippers.  
  
"Two-"  
  
Tripping around the screen, I flew across the room to my vanity, snatching up the brush and running it over my hair.  
  
"Three."  
  
Somehow, I ended up in the hall, with my hands still fumbling with the catch of my gold chain. Mama shook her head. "Well, it's a start," she said dryly. She tugged at my sash to straighten it, pulled a lock of my hair over my shoulder. She herself was dressed splendidly in a dark violet dress spangled with tiny gems. Her dark curly hair was bound in a loose roll at the nape of her neck, three beautifully carved roses of jasper nestled in place where her hair coiled into the roll.  
  
Me, I inherited none of Mama's good looks; I tend to take after the Aris side of the family, my Papa's side. I do have Mama's curly dark hair, but my nose is a little long, and my eyes are not blue, but a strange blend of gold, green, and brown. My sister, Damara, has the same eyes and hair, but she has the perfectly modeled nose and tiny hands and feet of Mama.  
  
The Denlieff Residence sparkled in curtains of snow, against which pools of pink and blue light from the glowglobes that floated above the walkway mixed. The ambassador's wife greeted us as we walked up the steps.  
  
"My home is yours," she murmured, in Denlieff custom.  
  
"May the seasons look favorably on it," Mama replied, taking the woman's hand. I curtseyed, and we moved into the room. The long, rectangular room was decorated with many tapestries, between which glowglobes shone in scones, casting light on the paneled wood floors. In the center of the room stood a marble fountain, and all about the room could be heard the musical trickle of water from secret streams hidden in alcoves behind artfully arranged plants. Courtiers stood in small groups about the room, conversing.  
  
After Mama and I had made the rounds, greeting acquaintances, I joined Kiera in the corner, where she shared a bench with the Duchess Alise. Slender, with yellow-hair, Alise was no more than three years our superior in age, but she had come into her title early in life, on account of her father's death. Since then, she had naturally become a leader of our circle.  
  
Kiera was smiling. "We have found three other girls who are willing to dress up as bells," she said excitedly. "Lady Tamri has volunteered her dressmaker."  
  
Alise nodded. "Yes, Claris is a treasure." She extended an arm. "She made this dress." We admired the violet and deep blue dress, with its decoration of snowstones sewn to fashion tiny flowers around the hem and neck. "Lady Margari has a few ideas as to the costume; she proposed that we meet at her residence to plan with Claris. If you would prefer to bring your own dressmaker."  
  
"No, Claris is wonderful," I assured her. "But how do you propose that we dress up as 'time bells?'"  
  
She spread her hands, marking each time change with a finger. "There are four Time phases: gold, green, blue, and white, with three changes to each. That makes twelve. Three girls will wear gold, the next three green, and so on."  
  
"And we shall wear other decorations," Kiera added eagerly, "to denote dawn, morning, afternoon, and night." She smiled. "You shall be Night, of course, with your dark hair. I should like to be Night, but."  
  
Alise shook her head. "No, no; you would look much better as afternoon, with your red-brown hair and fair skin. I want you in particular to be afternoon, for no one else quite looks the part."  
  
"And just think," I added, "you might persuade Geral to masquerade as a forester. That would look lovely next to your fawn and green colors." Geral was the young lord with whom she had been twoing for the past three months.  
  
Kiera smiled, but did not say anything. Alise waived her fan, looking about the room, then suddenly straightened and said, "Look who has come!"  
  
Turning, I saw Liara at the door, talking to the ambassador's wife. The ambassador's wife dropped her hand to greet other guests, and Liara walked into the room, looking about her. On catching sight of us, she smiled and made her way towards us. She curtseyed, sweeping back the skirts of her forest-green dress.  
  
"Good evening," she said.  
  
"Good evening," replied Kiera kindly. Touching my arm, she said, "Claudi, may I introduce you to the Countess of Tlanth, Liara Astiar?"  
  
Liara smiled at me. "We've met before."  
  
Kiera looked at me, puzzled. "Why didn't you tell me so this afternoon?"  
  
"I didn't know," I said. "We met in the library last night, but she never mentioned that she was Countess of Tlanth.  
  
"I thought that you had a cold," Alise said, frowning, but Kiera shook her head at her.  
  
"Forgive me," said Liara. "I must greet the others. It will be seen as a slight if I do not." She curtseyed again, smiling warmly.  
  
"Let me go with you," said Alise, rising and taking her arm. Kiera and I exchanged smiles, for it was obvious that Alise had selected Liara to be her protégée.  
  
Not long after that, the ambassador's wife invited us to dinner, and we joined the procession leading into the dining hall. A long, low table stretch from one end of the room to the other; unlike at most embassies, the Denlieff ambassador did not follow the Empire custom of sitting on chairs; instead, guests still knelt on silk cushions. The dinner was excellent, served on the curious, almost transparent china for which Denlieff was famed. Down the center of the table at intervals stood vases with long, fluted necks of jewel-like glass, but instead of flowers the vases held globes of light, which shone through the glass as if the vase- makers had trapped the moon, thus lighting the table.  
  
After dinner, servants in the stiff tunics customary in Denlieff offered us coffee and pastries while we listened to a duet of two manderal players.  
  
During the interval between songs, Liara, who sat next to me, said, "Do you read in the library often?"  
  
"Yes." I smiled. "As often as I can. I'm afraid it always seems too short a time between my arrival in the city and when I must leave this library for my more modest one at home."  
  
"Shall you be there tomorrow?" She said this slowly, and I realized that for all of her easy manners, she was shy.  
  
"Yes. Would you care to join me? I should very much like to talk with you more. Will you come in the morning?"  
  
She shook her head. "No, I cannot. But what about the afternoon? Second gold?"  
  
"I believe that would be all right." The first manderelist thrummed a chord, seemingly subduing the room with the soft, vibrating notes as every one hushed. Liara smiled before she turned around, and I closed my eyes, leaving myself completely vulnerable to the music's charm. 


End file.
